Kol Isha is the OFJCC’s intensive women’s leadership program. Over the course of a year, a small group of local women come together to build community, participate in Jewish learning and create local social impact projects. The 2023–2024 cohort began meeting in early October with a focus on the global refugee crisis and had planned to go on a trip to learn and volunteer at the US/Mexico borders with the Arizona Jews for Justice sometime in the early part of 2024.

The group was preparing for the trip when the events of October 7th traumatized global Jewry. The cohort was grieving for Israel and dealing with very real antisemitism in our schools and in our cities. The participants started to question whether they would have the strength and capacity to focus on immigrants when so many in our own communities were suffering. Facing this uncertainty, participant Linor Eylon, reached out to her son Adam, who serves in the IDF. Without hesitation, he said, “Now more than ever, we must be a light unto the nations. We must show up for others and stand proud of who we are as Jews and what we stand for.” Inspired by his words, the women pursued the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam, or Repair the World and continued with the trip as planned.

Thus on March 27, 2024, twelve dynamic Jewish women, led by the incomparable Tova Birnbaum and Luba Palant, headed to Phoenix, AZ to volunteer with Arizona Jews for Justice.

“We had no idea what to expect on this trip.”

We should not have worried, Rabbi Shmuly and Eddie were more than welcoming and excited for the opportunity to share their inspiring work. One project they have undertaken is volunteering at the Mount of Olives Lutheran Church in Phoenix, which welcomes buses of asylum seekers coming out of detention centers at the border. Before the church opened its space, ICE would drop off busloads of immigrants on the streets. These individuals neither knew where they were nor understood what they should do. Now, with the help of the Arizona Jews for Justice, the church opens its doors to asylum seekers and tells them where they are, provides them with a meal, a cell phone, a shower and one change of clothing. Each person released from detention must have a sponsor and a place to stay somewhere in the United States. Volunteers at the church help call their sponsors and arrange flights for them, usually paid for by the sponsors, and then take them to the airport or bus station.

The 14 of us from the OFJCC helped in any way we could. We prepared and served meals, sorted and handed out clothing, bought medicine and organized a medical supply closet, connected phones to wifi, made phone calls to sponsors,  helped download boarding passes, helped charge ankle monitors and used a lot of Google Translate. We were also fortunate to have, in our group, Jackie Miodownik Aisenberg. Originally from Argentina and a fluent Spanish speaker—as well as a physician—her presence was such a gift to the people who passed through the church.

Some of the people we encountered included:

• A man from India who spoke very little English who was heading to Mobile, Alabama, and his friend Azim from Bangladesh who was picked up by a friend who lived an hour away from the church. When Azim’s friend arrived despite being a very statured man, he broke down sobbing with relief.
• A 23-year-old woman named Alina from Siberia, Russia, who was on her way to Los Angeles to live with her father’s friend. Alina traveled through multiple countries, walked from Mexico to the border and spent over 2 months in detention. She was thrilled to meet Luba who spoke to her in Russian and helped her navigate the airport over the phone the next day. Seeing her face after she washed her hair for the first time in weeks was priceless.
• A young man arrived at the church and reunited with his mother for the first time in five years. A heartbreaking and heartwarming scene that none of us will forget.
• A tiny ten-day-old baby who is a United States citizen was born under detention but in the hospital. 
• We learned that women are given ankle monitors not because they are considered dangerous or untrustworthy, but because they want to be sure the women are not being trafficked. Julie Arnheim had to cut the jeans off a young woman who wanted to shower but couldn’t get them off because of the ankle monitor.

That same woman would not let us hold her baby while she showered. We must have offered twenty times, but she couldn’t bear to separate from her for even a few minutes.

• A young girl of seven or eight searching the moderately stocked clothing closet to find something cute to wear but leaving not exactly happy. It broke our hearts that we couldn’t provide her with something new and pretty so she could feel some sense of normalcy.

The people we met and the stories we heard from the asylum seekers will haunt us forever. In the words of Rabbi Shmuly, “It can be overwhelming and disheartening to see so much pain and struggle in the world. But as Jews, if we can save or help one person, we are changing their world. And we should take comfort in doing that one thing for that one person—showing our humanity and knowing we made a difference.”

—Lori Krolik and Karen Orzechoeski, 2023–2024 Kol Isha Cohort

When you channel the moment through human connection, the world opens up to incredible possibilities.

One day last fall, we invited two almost-strangers, our community members Giulio Fregni and David Porush, to the OFJCC for coffee. They had met once previously at the OFJCC’s Annual event back in March 2023. Lo and behold, even before our cups of coffee were in hand, they excitedly started recalling their prior encounter and all of our lives were made a little bit richer for it.

Back in spring 2023, OFJCC Chief Development Officer Seth Leslie invited Giulio, former Director of A/V at the OFJCC and now Senior Broadcast Engineer at Google for ASG, to channel his creative energies into a meaningful experience at The Annual. The Annual, the Oshman Family JCC’s Benefit of Belonging, is a community gathering that reverberates with a sense of homecoming, warmth and welcome. The event is filled with participatory experiences lovingly and generously co-created by community members.  The evening unfurls in a whimsical way as everyone chooses their own adventure, dressed as they please, often in costumes. Its dress code is “Wear what brings you joy!”

Giulio leveraged everyone’s burgeoning curiosity about artificial intelligence by coding on top of ChatGPT to create a “rabbi” avatar. Calling his creation Rabb-AI, Giulio said to himself, “Why don’t I try to create a [robot] assistant because it would be relevant to Jewish values. Let’s see if I can do it in a way that is both playful because it is kind of a joke, and respectful. There is this joy at unleashing rabbinic information and also something of a prank.”

RabbAI meets a real-life Avatar (Tanya P.)

Little did Giulio know when he was dreaming up Rabb-AI that a self-styled expert would attempt to go head to, ahem, “head” in a lively encounter with Rabb-AI. David received his B.S. in molecular biology from MIT followed by a Ph.D. in literature. He created the Society for Literature and Science and, in addition, has spent a great deal of time studying Jewish texts.

With an ever-present twinkle in his eye, David mused about his academic career, “In 1991, we had the first live performance of human actors directed by a computer. It spit out instructions for a play, for a drama, which actors would spontaneously perform.”

David had his doubts about Rabb-AI. “Like anyone else who is immersed in Judaism and takes it seriously, I’m a skeptic. I’m skeptical that AI could possibly achieve the depth that an ordained rabbi could. I assumed that a rabbi has a depth of textual learning and a sensitivity to the moment that couldn’t be replicated.”

David approached Rabb-AI and said “Shalom, Rabbi” into a microphone. Rabb-AI awoke, the conversation commenced, and his impression was “wow.” “I was testing its knowledge about a very specific discussion in Berakhot [a Talmud tractate]. It was a technicality. Rabb-AI nailed it.”

Notes Giulio, “For me, it was amazing because Seth gave me full freedom to produce the idea and my small social experiment. It was a lot of fun. And it was fun seeing so many familiar faces that I had known in other capacities.”

RabbAI encounters real-life Rabbi Amitai F.

In an age of real rabbis and robot rabbis, of near-perfect duplications, what is the difference between something like the Mona Lisa and perfect copies of the Mona Lisa? Explains David, “The cultural critic Walter Benjamin wrote about the authenticity of the original: Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its original presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it was created. Benjamin referred this unique cultural context as its ‘aura.’

“The original has the aura of the artist’s hand,” says David. What is the aura?

The magic of The Annual is being in the aura of the artist’s hand. The aura is an evening enjoying real-life presence, creativity, humanity and belonging. As a community of co-creators, we are guided by values such as immediacy and participation, and we express ourselves authentically.

We basked in each other’s auras until the last sips of coffee, and it was beautiful.

Tu B’Shvat may be an under recognized holiday in some circles, but it’s very significant in preschool. Trees serve a great many vital functions in society, and possibly even more in early childhood. They offer a structure to climb, a challenge to conquer. A habitat for animals, its own little world. Not to mention, a cyclical source of fruit. Even more, they offer life lessons as they grow alongside our students.

Here at the OFJCC Leslie Family Preschool, we are so grateful to have access to so many beautiful, fruiting trees, and our students take full advantage of the learning opportunities offered by the trees. There is always a student climbing a tree, picking a piece of fruit for a snack, or searching for small grubs hiding in the dirt. The students quite literally grow alongside the trees, each child growing taller and stronger as the trees do and learning to interact with and care for the trees in more complex ways. Each generation of students witnesses new trees grow, mature trees blossom or fruit and older trees wither, die and get replaced.

So, when Tu B’Shvat comes around, we thank the trees and we learn about them, we plant them and we hope for them. Every year in January, we watch something as small as a seed held in the hand of a child transform that child into a member of society through a simple lesson. A student may plant a tree today, and watch its seed sprout, its roots enmesh themselves into the ground, its spindly trunk emerge and reach toward the sun. However, that tree will need years of sun, water and care to grow trees and fruit sufficiently to feed that student. Each student begins to understand the selfless nature of trees—that those who plant them will not be around to see their fruit, and that the fruit we receive from our trees today is only due to the generous forethought of those that came before us.

—Amanda Klein, OFJCC Leslie Family Preschool educator

As we begin to wind down this Passover 2023, our thoughts turn from the struggle for freedom in the Biblical story of Exodus to more recent struggles for freedom in our own land.

Earl Hartman is a community member and former operator of Caffee Mediterranneum at the Food Oasis on campus. Earl’s grandfather was Joseph Gelders, a 20th century physicist who became a civil rights activist and who survived a brutal beating by the KKK in Alabama for his civil rights work. Gelders was not deterred.

“My mother’s father is the fabled hero in the family,” explains Earl. “He stood up and fought the good fight and nearly paid for it with his life.”

Pictured above, Joseph Gelders gives a speech at Highlander Folk School (now the Highlander Research and Education Center) around 1935. Highlander was a social justice leadership training center in Tennessee where civil rights activists Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, John Lewis and others received key training in social change and the struggle for freedom.

From his grandfather’s legacy, Earl learned, “If you see a situation that needs to be remedied, you have to find a way to do it.”

Today, Friday, January 27, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Designated by United Nations, the date of January 27 commemorates the day on which the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated in 1945. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum states, “On this annual day of commemoration, the UN urges every member state to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism and to develop educational programs to help prevent future genocides.”

To help you find ways to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day while connecting with the OFJCC community, check out these upcoming programs or streaming film recommendations.

1. Near Normal Man — Near Normal Man is a half-hour documentary film, told in a first-hand account by Ben Stern, a Polish Jew, who survives two ghettos, nine concentration camps and two death marches. The Nazis identify him as one of the dangerous Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Charlene Stern is the daughter of Holocaust survivor Ben Stern and former guest speaker at the OFJCC. She is the director of the film Near Normal Man, now streaming on popular video services.

Charlene told the OFJCC, “The greatest act that my father, who is now 101 years of age, accomplished in his life was not to survive the terrors, six years of slavery, beatings, starvation, whippings, and gun shots—that by itself was astounding and miraculous: Ben Stern survived all of that and was liberated. More than all of that, my father’s greatest act in life, is the one that has blessed him, my beloved mother (z”l), his future family and the world—Ben chose to let go of hatred. In that moment, he freed himself, his children, future grandchildren and more. He defied what had happened to him even while remembering all the pain and loss. He held on to Hashem with his broken heart. Over time and with the many blessings that he received in his 101+ years of life, his broken heart learned to keep beating with love, kindness and generosity of spirit. His Jewish neshamah [spirit], hope and love of people and life is the gift he brings to us all. Learn well about my father and the Holocaust. Some day you may need to let go of hatred.”

To learn more about Ben and the Near Normal Man film, please click here.

2. Remembrance of Things Present — The L.A.-based Braid Theater presents the only Bay Area performance of this theatrical production live at the Oshman Family JCC on Monday, 2/6.

In Remembrance of Things Present, the descendants of Holocaust survivors finally tell their own stories, as the legacy of the past imprints pain… hope… and healing.

View the trailer: 30 Second Trailer: Remembrance of Things Present – YouTube

Event tickets

3. Woman in Gold — Woman in Gold is a major motion picture, released in 2015, that tells the story of the Gustav Klimt painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer. Originally owned by Bloch-Bauer’s family, the painting was appropriated by the Nazis during the war and made its way to Austria. In order to assert her rights, Maria Altmann, a Jewish refugee and the niece of Bloch-Bauer, sued the Austrian government to restore the painting to its rightful owner.

In case you missed it: in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the OFJCC hosted Peter Altmann on Wednesday, 1/25. The Woman in Gold, by Gustav Klimt, is a portrait of Altmann’s great aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer. It was one of five Klimt paintings stolen from the family by the Nazis in World War II. Peter Altmann discussed the person, the painting, the artist, the movie and her journey through time. He also spoke about his wonderful mother, Maria Altmann, who escaped the Nazis and then had to fight for the return of her painting.

By Amanda Klein

OFJCC Ulpanon Preschool Program Educator

Once the air is crisp, the apples ripen and students return to school, we know it is the season for the High Holidays! The Jewish High Holidays at the Leslie Family Preschool and in the Ulpanon Hebrew immersion classrooms are a special time of year. Followers of Judaism mark their years by the High Holidays, similar to how educators’ annual calendars are delineated by the school year. When autumn descends, so do Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah and other holidays to follow. The fact that these holidays fall at the beginning of a new school year means that the energy is high and everyone is ready to commit themselves to a new year. For educators, we commit ourselves to making the coming school year especially meaningful for our students. The holidays are a prime opportunity to engage in sensory exploration, social-emotional learning, fun activities and powerful community building.

Here in the Ulpanon Hebrew immersion program at the OFJCC Leslie Family Preschool, we teach students ages three through five, and strive to make the holiday activities age appropriate as well as social-emotionally and spiritually significant. We do this by focusing on engaging students’ senses. Our educators design activities and explorations that encourage the students to use different parts of their bodies and minds to learn about the holidays and create meaning for both themselves as explorers of the world and interpersonally, as members of a school community.

This year, during our Rosh Hashanah celebrations, our students dug deep into learning about bees:

• How they transfer pollen, drink nectar, make honey, and form their honeycombs
• Some students were more interested in the bees themselves: their body parts, the colors of the bees, and their ability to fly
• Others were fascinated by the formation of honey, how it develops from nectar, or just how sweet it tastes

As educators, we offered students the opportunity to cook honey cake, read about bees, make their own bees out of loose parts and craft materials, touch honeycomb and beeswax, design their own honeycomb out of blocks, and play with yellow slime and sand in sensory bins to symbolize honey.

By offering such a wide variety of activities that allowed the students to engage in the topic in different ways, we show the students that we see their different interests and are committed to helping them further their learning and explore new topics using that they are comfortable with and excited about.

These activities often encourage students to mingle in new combinations and meet new friends with shared interests. The memories of the joy and intrigue bolstered by the holiday spirit of the High Holidays lingers through the fall, creating a stronger sense of community and wonder in the classroom.

Fourteen-year-old badminton star, Nicole K., has been playing badminton since she was eight. When her coach asked her to train in explosiveness and agility, she came to the OFJCC. Nicole has been working with personal trainer Dillon Gates to increase strength, improve stamina and move faster. Since her training, Nicole has excelled in tournaments and has even moved up an age group! Since Nicole placed 1st at a tournament in Frisco, she has been selected to represent team USA at the 2022 Pan Am Junior Championship in the Dominican Republic on 7/18–7/22. Good luck in the Dominican Republic!

• Where are you from, how old are you and what grade are you in?

I am from Palo Alto. I am 14 years old and will be a freshman in high school.

• How long have you been playing badminton?

I have been playing badminton for 6 years since I was 8.

• How did you get into it?

One of my mom’s friends introduced me to the sport and I just stuck with it.

• Do you play any other sports?

I don’t play any other sports as badminton takes up a lot of time and energy.

• How did you get started with the Oshman Family JCC?

My mom had a membership with the OFJCC and found out that they had personal training classes.

• What were you looking for in terms of training?

I was looking to increase muscle, get stronger, and increase my stamina.

• How has it been working with Dillon?

I feel like I have improved with the training that I got from Dillon. My badminton coach noticed a difference!

• What and where is your next competition coming up?

My next tournament is called Pan Ams which I will be playing in a week in the Dominican Republic.

• Have you ever played badminton against your parents?

I haven’t played against my parents before because they never learned badminton.

• Have you traveled out of the country for badminton before?

I traveled out of the country last year in 2021 to Mexico for Junior Pan Am games.

This week, the OFJCC was fortunate to sit down with the one and only Lieutenant Colonel Yaniv Nimrod, who will be gracing us with his presence this year at the 2022 OFJCC Annual Benefit.

This dual blog post was authored by Robert Perry and Aviv Siegel. Robert and Aviv started working on Parashat Ki Tisa a couple of months ago, and enjoyed working together, discussing, exchanging thoughts and ideas while finding inspiration to each create a personal work based on the Parsha.

There have been over 40 community contributors to a weekly Parsha interpretation as part of an invitation to from the Israeli Cultural Connection (ICC@JCC) to contribute to BaInyanim, the Israel community’s website in Silicon Valley. This week’s co-writing is unique and we hope to find other Israeli and American co-writers to join our community project. For more information, contact sackerman@paloaltojcc.org.

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Light is My Teacher

by Robert Perry

Robert Perry is an artist and poet, publisher and translator, and designer of books of poetry and art; he lives in Palo Alto and is a member of Congregation Kol Emeth. This poem is dedicated to Aviv Siegel, aptly named, for the light of Spring he brought to our havruta and the gift of Torah he shared with me.

See enough and write it down I tell myself writes author Joan Didion and that’s what I do because light is my teacher just as it was for Moshe Rabbeinu. As I’ve found my way up and down the mountain, wandering through the desert far more than forty years, I share with you some of what I’ve learned.

I have looked up into the sky, head back, life lessons of the utmost importance raining down upon the earth, my face now flush with the color of milk and honey.

And the voice of Moshe Rabbeinu speaks to me.

++++

light is my teacher

forty days and forty nights

on top of the mountain

for my restless

stiff-necked people chosen

for the hardest tasks

light is my teacher

to the full severity of compassion

so shall I lead them

and speak to them before my day is done

before we cross the river

into the land—I will teach them

to be a light among all nations

light is my teacher

the scarlet hand

I raised against the night

with banks of fires burning

high and deep

against my people dancing

around a golden idol

like flames circling

a cherished moon

leaving them

blind and lost

light is my teacher

my stone-white hand

holding the solemn silent

tablets of the Teaching

glowing throughout

the kingdom of night

churning like broken glass

around a false hope

instead of this gift of light

O my people Israel

be not afraid

so the light may dwell

in the sanctuary of your heart

light is my teacher

even in my fit of rage

hurling the tablets of the Teaching

into so many pieces

light is my teacher

learning to forgive

defend and comfort my people

crying out

in the wilderness

light is my teacher

as I crouch behind

the cleft in the rock

all the time longing to stand

before your face

in the grace

and glory of your light

light is my teacher

my face gleaming

upon my return from

the mountain

with the Teaching

the bliss

at being a vessel

of your love

light is my teacher

I am a mere drop of light floating

in the ocean of your radiance

infinite and vast beyond

what words can

measure or describe

you are my teacher

my light now and forever

++++

Parashat Ki Tisa

by Aviv Siegel

Aviv Siegel and his family have lived in the Bay Area since 2000. Having been a high tech entrepreneur for many years, Aviv is now pursuing Jewish Studies in the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJR) in New York. He and his family are members of Peninsula Temple Beth El (PTBE) in San Mateo.

Parashat Ki Tisa is a very rich parasha and it was not easy for me to decide what to focus on. As I was reading it, I saw how the description of the relationship between God and Moshe can speak to me in a deep and personal manner.

This parasha ends the long stay of Moshe up on Mt. Sinai that lasted 40 days and 40 nights where he received the Torah and instructions from God. Just as God completes speaking with Moshe and gives him the stone tablets, we find out that the people of Israel waiting for Moshe were not idle all this time.

Unsure where their leader has gone for so long, they lost patience and ask Aaron to furnish a new God for them—and Aaron builds them the golden calf.

God is not happy with all this. Enraged, God tells Moshe of what happened and is determined to wipe out the People of Israel. God offers Moshe to replace the People of Israel with Moshe’s own descendants:

The LORD further said to Moses, “I see that this is a stiff-necked people. Now, let Me be, that My anger may blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation.”

Moshe responds by asking God to calm down and to not let the anger drive God’s  actions:

But Moses implored the LORD his God, saying, “Let not Your anger, O LORD, blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand … Turn from Your blazing anger, and renounce the plan to punish Your people.”

God listens to Moshe and calms down:

And the LORD renounced the punishment God had planned to bring upon God’s people.

The people of Israel will be soon severely punished, but they will not be destroyed.

This is not the first time we see a leader imploring God to change God’s mind and be more patient and compassionate. Remember Avraham pleading and negotiating with God not to kill all people of Sodom.

For me, it is quite remarkable to see the special relationship God and Moshe have, and the greatness of Moshe. He is not tempted to have his own descendants be elevated to be God’s new people. And he knows how to speak with God in a way that God will listen and calm down.

Later in the parasha Moshe prepares the second set of stone tablets, and as God passes before him Moshe proclaims:

“The LORD! the LORD! a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and good faith, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin”

For me, this proclamation is surprising, especially after seeing what happened just a bit earlier: Didn’t we just see how God was willing to destroy the people of Israel and replace them with another people? (And we may also recall that God had a similar plan in the story of the flood in Genesis).

So how can Moshe call God slow to anger, abounding in kindness and good faith?

Is it that Moshe is just saying these things to appease God? Or is there something else?

—

As I was contemplating what happened here, I thought of the special relationship between God and Moshe here.

This story reminds me how I am sometimes quick to get angry, and I know all too well how easy it is for things to get out of proportion if I immediately follow my anger. I also know that if I let the anger stay inside, it will erupt at some point.

I learned that when I speak with someone who I appreciate and feel safe with—like a good friend or with my life partner—about what angers me, it really helps, even while I really want to react and do something rushed. It helps me to calm down and put things into perspective. Many a time, a good friend would also offer me different views and allow me to see I overreacted.

Isn’t this what happened here between God and Moshe?

If we look back at the first quote, God asks Moshe, “Now, let me be.” One may wonder, what does that mean? Does God need Moshe’s permission or action to let God be? Of course not.

But maybe, this is God’s way to tell Moshe “I need your help here: I am angry and planning on a harsh punishment, I need your help me see through it – let me be, hear me out.”

We can see that Moshe is wise and supportive in his response, not falling into God’s plan to make him greater, but really see what is happening and help.

This may explain Moshe’s proclamation later that God is slow to anger.

It is not that God is never angry—God is described as being angry more than once—but Moshe is saying here God is slow to anger.

One of ways to be slow to anger is for one to recognize the anger in them, to realize the need for help, to ask the help of a trusted friend or partner in working through the situation, and then to allow the kindness and compassion to emerge. This requires trust, courage, and humility.

Anger here is not negated or shunned but can be an opening to a more constructive action.

In that sense, Moshe’s proclamation is a beautiful tribute from a trusted friend who sees the truth inside and through and reminds one of their true nature. It is someone who is sensitive to what is happening within the other and is able to provide the right help at the right time, not letting their friend to continue on their path to a possible collision.

I am taking with me these contemplations from this rich parasha: how can I be slow to anger, see where I need help, ask for it, receive it, as well as being able to see and support the other wherever they are.

Let me start out with an admission: I am an unabashed fangirl of DC comics’ pantheon of characters. Ever since I secretly watched Batman: The Animated Series in my parents’ basement, I adored every hero (and some of the villains) DC produced. I still occasionally watch Justice League Unlimited as a special treat to myself. So, let’s just say I expressed more than a little excitement when DC and Warner Brothers announced Wonder Woman’s emergence onto the silver screen for Patty Jenkin’s 2017 film Wonder Woman, which I believe adheres fairly well to this character’s essence.*

Admiration is one thing; but why would a rabbi laud a Greek-myth-inspired pop culture icon? It boils down to three things.

First, love.

I do not mean romantic love. Yes, that is in this film, but most of all, love of family and love of humanity drive Diana. Her love evolves, starting simply and then eventually acknowledging humanity’s complexity and imperfections. She sees humanity’s darknesses, and consequently, experiences disappointment. Nonetheless, she still loves the human race. That love drives her to reexamine her own choices and capabilities. It deepens her understanding of herself and as a result, her powers amplify. This is not totally dissimilar to how the Bible sees love. In the Torah, the word love first occurs not between romantic partners, but as God’s description of a familial relationship, between a parent and a child (Genesis 22:2). Later usage of love includes romance (for example, Genesis 29:32), but it also commands how strangers should treat one another (Leviticus 19:18). It even defines humanity’s relationship to the divine (Deuteronomy 6:5) and God’s attachment to humanity (Deuteronomy 7:9). These different kinds of love characterize Wonder Woman as well; they turn her from a specially trained individual with powerful abilities into a hero.

Second, wonder.

Her power levels are equal to Superman, and she is a better trained fighter than Batman. However, Princess Diana of Themyscira is not just wonderful. She is full of wonder. Throughout the movie, Wonder Woman sees the world through fresh eyes. This enables her to experience a whole rainbow of feelings, earnestly and fully. Indeed, sorrow washes over her, but joy and happiness flood her as well. In his commentary on Genesis 9, the 11th century scholar Rashi connects the concepts of wonder and awe to the Hebrew word for life. I love this connection; when we open ourselves to wonder, to awe, even to fear, life becomes more vivid. Particularly throughout this film, we witness Wonder Woman’s understanding of life deepening and blossoming with each new experience in the greater world.

Third, values.

Wonder Woman consistently follows her heart; she makes every attempt to adhere to the traditions which guided her formative lessons. Her values propel her choices. In modern parlance, she lives a purpose-driven life. In her final conversation with her mother, Hippolyta begs Diana to remain on the Amazonian island; in return, the princess asks “but if I stay, who will I be?” This moment contains echoes of Rabbi Hillel’s famous statement “If I am only for myself, what am I?” in Pirke Avot 1:14. Wonder Woman knows that if she refuses to help when she can, she will betray not just others, but also herself. Her values guide her heroism.

When we empower ourselves to live according to our values, continuously seeing wonder in the world around us, and allowing love to color our choices, we set ourselves on a path of living as best as we can. We guide the hero that resides within all of us to emerge. And in this way, any person can become Wonder Woman.

*Granted, there have been many versions of this 75-year-old character, including some terrible re-imaginations during 1990s when she was forced into biker shorts after losing her title to Artemis.